Messages - volatilecurry

Miura has taken every opportunity to stand behind this thing, particularly knowing his lack of dedicated involvement in other recent projects. His name is on the cover, he provided original art (which is awesome), and he praised the "establishment of Grunbeld's story" in the recent YA comment. If he wasn't proud of it, or his involvement was minimal, we'd likely have gotten the simple "please buy the new Berserk thing!" comment that we often saw in relation to the movies.

That being said, we will likely never know the specifics of what transpired between he and the writer. I think there are some safe assumptions though. Miura has been very protective of Berserk, so I have a hard time believing he placed his entire trust in the writer to flesh out Grunbeld's story. He probably had pointers from Miura about the overall thrust. There's also a pretty safe bet about why this thing was created, and thus, how fans should weigh it in their minds. Given the recent animation, it would make sense if this novel was born as a merchandising ploy, using a character that had recently taken the spotlight.

What I can't reconcile throughout this whole thing is what Miura was thinking about the audience at large, the international fans, which he is keenly aware of. It sure seems like an irresponsible merchandising choice, made without much thought for how the overall story of Berserk is assimilated. There's zero guarantee we'll ever get the novel officially translated. So what are we to do, and how are we to treat this thing? It's an uncomfortable place to be for fans. The fact that we've gotten a hastily assembled summary has changed nothing in that regard, as we expected.

There's no doubt in my mind that this thing is simply the "merchandising ploy" that you describe. I'd have a hard time believing it's something that Miura personally thought up and planned around. My question is how much of a say Miura has on such things. Could he have outright said "no" to something like this? Depending on the contract in question, at least in other industries, the author of the source material may have little to no say over something this whatsoever. But I don't know the nature of Miura's relationship with the rights holders.

My assumption with the recent anime itself is that he had little involvement in the choosing of the studio or the outcome of the product -- I'd guess that he agreed to have the series animated, signed some paperwork, and enjoyed whatever minimal involvement they allowed him while the suits handled the rest. But how far does something like his reach? Do they need to ask his permission to have light novels made? Or did they approach him and say "We're making this, what material do you have that we can use?", or something to that effect? This may be another thing that we'll simply never know the details of, but I think the answer to these questions is pretty important.

For example; if Miura's permission to make the light novel was required, then that means this project has his blessing up and down. He approved of it to begin with and regardless of how much involvement he had in making it, his stamp of approval is on it. But if his permission was not required and it was happening regardless of what he contributed, then that's a bit of a different story. Sure his name would be on the thing and his stamp of approval would be there, but that stamp of approval may be superficial. He could be totally unhappy about the existence of the thing and the end result, but is forced to put on a happy face and support it openly due to contractual obligations.

I'm just spitballing possible scenarios here. I'm very curious about how all this goes behind the scenes.

I'm not really sure what to make of your opinion. You seem to want to know about the origins of the apostles, but just not in the manga? Why...? Have they been obtrusive to you in the past? I think that Miura's kind of a master at compressed storytelling when he puts his mind, using just a few panels (Rochine), a few pages at most (Count, Ganishka) to convey what could have been volumes of information. There's no reason he can't, and won't still, do that in the manga moving forward.

If I'm playing devil's advocate, maybe your concern is that as the story propels forward, with so many apostles still on the stage, the story would be slowed down by a series of flashbacks, so that they'd be executed in a perfunctory manner. Well, I'd just say I don't think there's precedence to have that concern, given how the backstories have been laid out in the past. I think Miura is going to space out his big fights in keeping with these characters. Novels or not, killing Locus, Grunbeld and Rakshas in the span of a handful of episodes in some cataclysmic fight wouldn't be very satisfying, I don't think.

Maybe I should have elaborated a bit more in my original post. Back stories haven't been obtrusive in the past and while I agree that the "back story gauntlet" that you describe in your second paragraph would be less than desirable, I don't think Miura is going to disappoint us now. He has yet to disappoint me on just about anything as of yet.

What I meant to say is; the length of the novel and amount of detail that (I assume, having not read it) it goes into are beyond the scope of what I'd like to see in the manga for most characters. For Skull Knight or Isidro or someone vital to the cast, I'll gladly take an entire episode (or two or three?!) dedicated to them -- if Miura has that much to say about them, that is. But I do not want to see that much for Grunbeld, Locus, Irvine, etc. A brief flashback of a few pages or even just a couple of text bubbles that explain where they come from is enough for most of them in my opinion. From there, if you want more, I think a novel or a one-shot about the character that stands beside the manga is appropriate. American comics do this all the time and it's not an issue there. This isn't all that typical in manga but I personally don't have a problem with the practice in general.

What I do take issue with is if said side material contradicts the source material or if it opens up plot holes that the source material doesn't address. If Miura gave the author of the novel an outline of what the story is about, and then checked it for consistency (or at least had someone check it for him) then this shouldn't be an issue. I don't know if that's the case with this novel, and based on the summary provided above, I'm a bit worried that the author had more free reign than we might like... But again, I'll wait until have a more detailed summary before jumping to conclusions.

The ideal scenario may lie somewhere in between -- with the manga giving us the vital bits of the back story and then letting the character really shine in their own stand alone tale that goes beyond the scope of what should have been included in the manga. Think "The History of Trunks" from Dragon Ball Z. Trunks was a main character for a rather long story arc (often separated into two arcs, actually) and was massively influential to the story of that time. His back story was elaborated on within the original series, but he was given even more back story in his own standalone movie. Similarly, "Bardock - Father of Goku" was a standalone movie that gave a full back story on a character that wasn't originally mentioned in the manga, but was later referenced briefly after the success of the movie. Maybe Berserk would benefit most from a scenario like one of these.

All that being said, I echo the concern that others have had about merchandising the series too much at the expense of the manga. If Skull Knight's story isn't explained in the manga at all (beyond the little bits we have so far) and is instead sold as a standalone novel or something written by a third party, then I wouldn't be too happy and I think the manga would suffer as a result of it.

I don't mind the existence of this thing as much as a lot of others seem to. I'm personally not interested in reading the back story of every one of the main apostles within the manga, I'd kind of prefer that stuff be off to the side and only consumed if/when you choose to do so. That said, if this thing is as polarizing as it sounds (sacrifices offering themselves up? What?) then that'll be very annoying. I'm eagerly awaiting a more thorough summary once those capable have the chance to put the time into this thing.

I've been saying it'll be March for months. Looks like I was right! Looking forward to it for sure! I'm not expecting Casca's condition to be fully cured here, but we should learn a lot in this episode. At the very least, we dive into Casca's mind and learn about what exactly is going on in there. It'll also expose Schierke and Farnese to the Eclipse in some regard, and that should be an interesting thing to see. We've been waiting so long for this moment and it's finally happening. It's almost surreal.

On another note, the translation for the bubble in the preview supposedly says "Wonderful 100p full volume!!". As others have said, I'm assuming this is going to be a recap leading up to the episode. But in the past, wasn't the recap directly referred to as such? If so, maybe this is something different after all. Could we be so lucky as to get 100 pages of new material? I'm not expecting that at all, but boy would that be grand...

"Burkilaka" just sounds so wrong that it calls everything else into question for me. I'm assuming a lot of these names are simply translations of how they're pronounced phonetically, which puts us in the same boat as "Guts" -- which I guess they didn't use because they knew better.

Is Locks that far off though? How is his name supposed to be pronounced in Japanese? Is it like "Loksu" or like "lokusu" or does it even make a difference?

Likewise, what is the actual difference between Erika and Erica? Sure we can favor one over the other in English but the difference is completely arbitrary. Does Japanese have any way of distinguishing between the two or are you just preferringthe K spelling because it was already established?

So are they actually seeing a child's drawing in her dream? Or is that more for us readers?

It would be interesting if that were the case but that's not the impression I got from it. It looks more to me like what they're seeing is the way Casca generally perceives things -- in a warped and unclear way. Like instead of looking at a person and hearing all the words they say, she sees a twisted, shadowy version of them, and simply hears mumbling. As if she's so trapped inside her own mind that the outside world in which she interacts is barely paid attention to. It's like the part of her mind that thinks clearly is completely shut down and only her base instincts are in action here. I've heard similar descriptions for how some forms of autism effect people: They see, hear, smell, and feel everything around them, but their brain won't focus on any one thing long enough to form a detailed image of it, which leaves them with a distorted and unclear view of the world and the people around them.

The limp Dragonslayer hanging up to dry had me laughing. The Berserker armor speaking to Farnese was great too.

The fact that it said "Don't prey!" tells me that that line really effected Farnese. I mean we already knew this based on what happened at the time and immediately after, but its presence in her dream really shows that she still carries the weight of that event.

The Magnifico/Puck scene was great. Genuinely funny and after years of speculating what Magnifico would try to do after getting to the island, this was a great conclusion to that little plot thread.

Guts taking a deep breath and counting on Schierke and Farnese to handle Casca is yet another example of how far he's come since the Black Swordsman arc.

Serpico telling Guts to have faith was almost fourth wall breaking. I feel like he was half speaking to us.

That last page though. I noticed it in the leaked Guidebook images too but it still sent chills down my spine.

Really, one of the most impactful episodes of Berserk in recent memory. I can't wait for 348.

The Guidebook is looking great so far! I'm really glad I ordered one now. It'll be real nice when it gets translated too since it looks like there's a lot of info on the pages so far. I especially want to know what's written about Miura's workspace

It also looks like one of those pages shows a preview for ep 347 (or maybe 348 or something). Looks like Schierke and Farnese on some sort of battlefield with tattered flags everywhere. Flashbacks to Casca's days in the Falcons maybe? The anticipation is high right now.

I finally got Witcher 3 the other day and I have the next week off of work so I'm hammering way at it. I've been a fan of the series for a while and also read the books, it's a wonder it took me this long to get this game. It's amazing so far though and it really scratches that dark fantasy itch left behind by Berserk and GoT.

I just find myself with so little to say after watching episode 2. This isn't the Berserk I wanted. The 3D sucks. The brief glimpses we get of hand drawn animation are nice but leave me wishing the entire show looked like that. I just don't know what they were thinking with this thing.

So this came up the other day and I realized that I'm not actually 100% clear on it. Is the Eclipse the name for the sacrificial ceremony that Apostles go through, or is that reserved for only God Hand members? I've called the event in volume 3 "The Count's Eclipse" for years but I'm realizing now that maybe it's different for Apostles.

The most prominent piece of evidence that comes to mind is the prediction of the Holy See that Farnese speaks of at the beginning of Conviction. She specifically mentions the sun dying five times, which suggests that the Eclipse was seen worldwide, or at least regionally. Rickert also sees the Eclipse and comments on it from outside. If this happened every time an Apostle was born then not only would the sun have died more than five times, but that would be a whole lot of solar eclipses. They'd be a fairly normal phenomenon.

So I ask you, if "Eclipse" isn't the name for the ceremony that normal Apostles go through, then what is it called? Has it been given a specific name? If it has, I can't think of where or when that happens.

I really hated the movies when I first saw them. Episode 1 of Berserk 2016 has given me a new appreciation for them though... I still maintain that the first movie was a rushed mess and the other two cut too much and still had ugly CG. But movies 2 and 3 still felt cinematic and were more enjoyable to watch. I do really like the introduction to all the God Hand members in movie 3. I thought that scene was really cool and definitely outshines '97 anime. The 2D animation also looks really nice.

Just put all your money into the manga or even dvds of the old show to give away. That message i can endorse, but every man for himself.

If you're supporting something then you're doing your part TBH. If you can't get behind "Berserk 2016" I understand. A lot of people can't. But I do feel like we as fans are obligated to dump some money into the series in one way or another right now. We're at a point in time where we actually have options for investing into the series. However you want to do that should help at least a little.

From a financial standpoint only, aren't we somewhat obligated to grit our teeth and support this? Don't shoot me down, just here me out a little. Berserk is a niche property, and from the little I know (yes, little) about marketing, if we continue to shoot down every crappy release, won't we be more likely to get more, yet spaced out crap?

I'm honestly wondering should one of these adaptations, bad as they may be, if one were to find financial success, could this in turn grant us someone's attention who wants to invest in a bigger, better translation of the story?

To some degree, I think so. If we can prove to those in power that Berserk is a series that can attract a lot of viewers and make money, I believe the chances of us getting another adaptation with a better budget is there. The scary part is, this series becoming successful can be interpreted two different ways. It can either be

A: "Berserk has a lot of potential, let's do another season and increase the budget"

or B: "The fans liked this? Great, do another one exactly the same way."

I pray we get the former instead of the latter. My hope at this point isn't even that we get a full series that covers the entire story from start to finish (the dream), but I'm more hoping that we can get OVA's or movies that tell specific events. An OVA for Lost Children would be perfect. An OVA or movie for the Black Swordsman arc would be perfect. They could fit certain chapters of later arcs into a single movie as well, without too many cuts if the money and effort was there.

Anyway, What this all means to me is that I'm going to keep watching the series on Crunchyroll, buy the Musou game, buy volume 38, buy the bluray of the '97 series (if it ever comes to America), and I'll probably buy a physical release of the 2016 series too. The best I can do to tell them that Berserk can make money. Hopefully it sends them the right message.

I had low expectations after the previews and the GA movies (which I absolutely hated) and I was still disappointed. The 3D character models and animation is just so stiff and unattractive. 3D chestnut Puck was something I really could have done without too.

The story changes they made here didn't bother me as much as it seems to bother others. Knowing they'd cut early parts of Conviction, it sort of made sense to introduce Isidro the way they did. And honestly, the manga scene that he's introduced in is sort of a throw away. It shows Kushan soldiers and some cool moves from Guts but it can be replaced without any significant impact on the story. Schierke's cameo was unexpected but also harmless. If Miura had planned for her back in 1989, I wonder if she might have had similar introduction in the Conviction arc. I was really thrown off by some of the dialogue though. I don't know what Crunchyroll's track record is with accurate subtitles, but that line about the tree not being suitable firewood was... Well it was something.

On the positive side, I think the Opening was pretty well done. There were some hints of really nice hand-drawn animation in there too, which makes it even more of a shame that this was basically not present at all in the actual show. It's like getting a glimpse of what the show could have looked like if it had a better budget. I think the soundtrack in general is pretty good so far. It's no Hirasawa soundtrack but by no means is it bad.

Overall I felt like the episode was alright. It didn't offend my family like the first GA trilogy movie did but it didn't make me happy either. Knowing it would blend 2D and 3D animation, I had hoped it would use mostly 2D and only 3D during action scenes. That's probably my biggest disappointment with this. But it was still entertaining I guess.